The former should be managed exactly like any other athletic exercise; its real object being to strengthen the muscles of voice, respiration and gesture; and (as a general rule,) the more heartily and even violently these are exercised, the greater will be the benefit.

It is important to enter upon such exercises with a willing, hearty, and cheerful spirit, just as in practising some active. sport. They constitute some of the most useful forms of exercise in reference to health, and there is good reason for thinking them more directly preventive of the torturing malady, dyspepsia, than any other gymnastic resource. A resort to the celebrated vocal gymnasium in Philadelphia, conducted by Dr. Comstock, has been found by comparative trial, much more beneficial to health, than following the modes of exercise in one of the common gymnasia in the same city. No modes of exercise quicken the circulation of the blood, and promote a healthful flow of spirits, more than vocal gymnastics.

Secondly, when learning to judge of his own expressiveness, let the student keep in mind, that his voice will generally sound more earnest and interesting to himself than to his auditors.

This is a demonstrable fact. Upon private enquiry it will be ascertained, that in most cases, when men of considerable force of character fail in animation as speakers, they themselves are afraid of being too much excited, and have hardly a suspicion that they are not animated enough. Even when candidly informed to the contrary, they find it difficult to believe the fact, and incline to think that the fault is in the hearers. It is not often from conceit or vanity that they make this mistake. They are conscious, and indeed know with certainty, that their internal feelings have been glowing, and that they have intended to express them. The error results from the habit of subjec

tively watching their own feelings, instead of objectively noticing what is the actual sound of their voices in the room. We first became acquainted with this fact, in the case of men of mature age, and not in that of the young and inexperienced.

But when the ear has been well cultivated, and the speaker can accurately judge of the degree of loudness and distinctness required in a given situation, many who have a delicate sensibility, still fail of being eloquent from fear of indulging in too much excitement. This is particularly the case with college students, inasmuch as severe study is more powerful than all other influences in superinducing delicacy and modesty of character. The Scotch call a professor of Latin, a professor of humanity-using this word in its Latin sense as equivalent to refinement. Bulwer, the novelist, has made an interesting application of the same fact, in regard to the influence of studious habits.

Such being the difficulties in regard to the present subject, we have found the following additional information of great

service.

A speaker may know when his voice sounds truly expressive, and when he himself seems to others to be really in earnest, by the fact of his being conscious of a convulsive or at least a hearty effort at the bottom of the breast-of a thrill throughout the entire bodily frameand especially of a sensation of tingling or burning in the cheeks.

This sensation in the cheeks will not manifest itself to the eyes of the spectators. The face will not flush. If any alteration takes place in its color, it will be rather that of a tendency to paleness. A decided flush would be disagreeable to the spectators, and embarrassing to the speaker. Indeed, a sufficient reason for even refusing to be eloquent, if flushing of face were necessary for it, would be, that mere theatrical ranters some

times practise a trick of sending the blood into their faces, and thus pretending to be in a "torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of passion."

In giving the above directions for judging of one's own exhibition of eloquent feeling, we have no reference to tragedy, nor exclusively to oratory that is highly impassioned. Careful observation for many years, of audiences as well as speakers, in court rooms, and popular meetings of various sorts, and the opportunity of testing the truth of our conclusions, by prevailing on young men to try them in the way of experiment, enable us to say without hesitation, that nothing short of the physical excitement just described, will produce an expression that will even be called simply animated, and that too, by the most intellectual audiences.

Under the present head we have written strongly in favor of the healthfulness of vocal gymnastics. This will perhaps seem strange, in view of the fact that so many, especially clergymen, lose their health from speaking. Some considerations in explanation of this evil, will be found in the third part of this treatise, under the head of Impassioned Sentiment, while still further attention will be bestowed on the same subject, in the section in the Appendix, on the Health of Speakers.

TONE OF COMMUNICATING THOUGHT..

Before concluding this chapter, it is necessary to caution the student in respect to that management of the voice by which all speaking, whether calm or impassioned, is characterized by that tone which indicates an especial effort to inculcate or explain our ideas to others.

The most universal deficiency in the delivery of those who read or speak what they have previously written, is the absence of that appearance of a direct dealing with the minds of the audience, which commonly accompanies an extemporaneous ad

dress. So considerable indeed, is the difference between these two modes of making addresses, that it is commonly supposed impossible to give to the former as much freshness of interest as is expected from the latter.

In opposition however, to this opinion, let it be borne in mind, that but few speakers have hitherto fairly tried the experiment, of endeavoring so to manage the delivery of written composition, that their elocution shall be precisely the same as that of extemporaneous language. If the attempt be faithfully made, it will certainly be followed by a satisfactory degree of success. The address may not have an entire appearance of being extemporaneous, but if not, the difference will be in the more methodical style of the composition, rather than in the elocution.

In managing elocution with reference to this important point, it will be necessary, indeed, to bring into use all the general habits of delivery which we have hitherto described, yet even these may not ensure this result. The primary object of all language is to express thought. Even in composition, which is principally addressed to the imagination and feelings-such as the most fanciful or sentimental poetry-there must always be a course of thought running through the whole.

It is the want of the tone of communicating or explaining thought, then, that constitutes the principal deficiency when the delivery of compositions formally prepared, is less interesting than the freshness of externporaneous address.

In the present treatise, reading and recitation being designedly omitted, and practical speaking being its exclusive subject, there will be no liability to error in saying, that a speaker must always have, as a sort of foundation for his elocution, the tones of explanation. These may indeed be referred in general to the doctrines of inflexion and emphasis, but it is found by experience, that sometimes when such doctrines have been

thoroughly mastered, there still remains a deficiency in respect to our present subject. A strictly scientific explanation of this deficiency can be given only by methods similar to those employed in the great work of Dr. Rush. But as it would be in

consistent with the character and objects of the present volume, to enter into such minuteness and intricacy of detail, it is hoped that, as a substitute for such methods of treating the subject, the following directions will be found sufficiently available.

As will be again mentioned in the third part of this work, a tone of strongly marked explanation causes the voice to proceed with a waving slide on each syllable, or at least on those which admit of long quantity. The more strongly marked emphases are also made by decided changes of pitch. The emphatic falling inflexions are either given with waves of the third, or of a still greater interval, or with a sudden change in key through the same distance, while the emphatic rising ones begin below the current pitch and slide up. Such descriptions however, will not be very intelligible, except to the readers of Dr. Rush's work, or the students of that of Prof. Day, or Dr. Comstock-or perhaps of some others which have lately been published, but have not yet fallen within our observation-and it will be better not to continue this sort of description further. In general then,

In the tones of explanation, the vanishing terminations of words and of accented syllables, are significantly prolonged. The voice is managed with an especial effort at significant flexibility, and has a waving or circumflex

tone,

A pointed expression is especially given to the ends of words, and particularly to the very last syllable that precedes a rhetorical pause.

As a consequence of these efforts, the articulation becomes peculiarly definite, and assists also in the significant expression.